DC Residents Deserve a Government that Takes Workplace Sexual Misconduct Seriously

DC residents are entitled to a government that takes workplace sexual misconduct seriously and acts to prevent it from recurring. The Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel released on Saturday night during a holiday weekend its Summary of Findings regarding serious allegations of sexual misconduct by John Falcicchio, finding that Falcicchio engaged in unwanted, physical sexual advances toward and unwelcome sexual touching of a government employee. In addition, he exposed his sexual organs to that employee and sent them thousands of unwanted, sexually-explicit messages, including a graphic video. These findings relate to only one of two government employee complainants — the latter of which is still awaiting findings.

As someone who helped lead workplace misconduct reforms for a better, safer workplace and as someone who has experienced workplace sexual harassment myself, it is clear that this administration is not doing enough to prevent and address sexual misconduct in its ranks and is instead working to bury a political scandal.

Falcicchio was an extremely powerful, high-level government employee. He has been described as “a shadow mayor who wielded power over economic development and devised political strategy.” The allegations of misconduct against him are severe and pervasive, “reflect[ing] a longstanding pattern of sexual harassment and predatory behavior.”

The investigation into Falcicchio’s sexual misconduct was flawed in several respects:

• The Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel — which provides legal advice and support to the Mayor and her senior staff, like Falcicchio — was responsible for the investigation, creating the appearance of a conflict, at best, and casting doubt as to the neutrality of the investigation.
• Falcicchio chose and was allowed not to participate, depriving the investigation of crucial information and creating the appearance of an opt-out process for accused harassers.
• Several potential witnesses “declined to participate in the investigation, did not respond or were unable to be contacted,” reflecting a failure to build trust through the existing complaint procedures — crucial to a fulsome and complete investigation and meaningful action to address workplace misconduct.
• Several allegations were deemed outside the scope of the investigation, where bullying, threatening behavior, and retaliation are central to consideration of workplace power dynamics and sexual misconduct. Notably each of these allegations implicated government entities beyond Falcicchio and are crucial to understanding the workplace culture that allowed this misconduct to take place and possible preventive actions.

Stronger procedures, including investigations by experts outside of the Executive, particularly into complaints against high-level government officials to ensure the investigation’s neutrality; the ability to expand investigations to consider all relevant evidence and the full scope of misconduct, as well as to prevent such misconduct in the future; and the expansion of existing procedures to include institutional assessments to understand what is necessary to prevent workplace sexual misconduct in the future, are needed. Concrete recommendations for improvement to the Mayor’s sexual harassment policy exist both locally and nationally.

I urge the Mayor to honor her commitment in her sexual harassment policy that “the District of Columbia Government … does not tolerate any form of sexual harassment in the workplace. Sexual harassment is recognized as one of the most unjust, demeaning, and demoralizing examples of workplace misconduct.” As someone who helped lead workplace misconduct reforms for a better, safer workplace and as someone who has experienced workplace sexual harassment myself, it is clear that this administration is not doing enough to prevent and address sexual misconduct in its ranks and is instead working to bury a political scandal. The people of DC, employees of the District government, and our local institutions deserve better.

–Erin Palmer